A streamlined life-cycle assessment and decision tool for used tyres recycling

In order to achieve progress towards sustainable resource management, it is essential to evaluate options for the reuse and recycling of secondary raw materials, in order to provide a robust evidence base for decision makers. This paper presents the research undertaken in the development of a web-based decision-support tool (the used tyres resource efficiency tool) to compare three processing routes for used tyres compared to their existing primary alternatives. Primary data on the energy and material flows for the three routes, and their alternatives were collected and analysed. The methodology used was a streamlined life-cycle assessment (sLCA) approach. Processes included were: car tyre baling against aggregate gabions; car tyre retreading against new car tyres; and car tyre shred used in landfill engineering against primary aggregates. The outputs of the assessment, and web-based tool, were estimates of raw materials used, carbon dioxide emissions and costs. The paper discusses the benefits of carrying out a streamlined LCA and using the outputs of this analysis to develop a decision-support tool. The strengths and weakness of this approach are discussed and future research priorities identified which could facilitate the use of life cycle approaches by designers and practitioners.

An Inclusive Design Dialogue on Ethics and Aesthetics

One of the many definitions of inclusive design is that it is a user-led approach to design. To date its focus has been on ‘critical’ users, in particular disabled people. As such, there is pressure to design environments that meet the often urgent and complex demands of these users. Designers, uncertain of their knowledge, rely heavily on user input and guidance, often resulting in designs that are ‘solution’ driven (rather than solution seeking) and short term; users focus on what they need, not what they might need. This paper argues that design needs to reclaim an equal presence within inclusive design. It proposes that the ‘weakness’ of design lies in the uneasy and at times conflicting relationship between ethics and aesthetics. The paper itself is constructed around a dialogue between two academics, one concerned with critical user needs, the other with aesthetics, but both directed towards the support of design quality

1916: A Global History

The mud-filled, blood-soaked trenches of the Low Countries and North-Eastern Europe were essential battlegrounds during the First World War, but the war reached many other corners of the globe, and events elsewhere significantly affected its course.

Covering the twelve months of 1916, eminent historian Keith Jeffery uses twelve moments from a range of locations and shows how they reverberated around the world. As well as discussing better-known battles such as Gallipoli, Verdun and the Somme, Jeffery examines Dublin, for the Easter Rising, East Africa, the Italian front, Central Asia and Russia, where the killing of Rasputin exposed the internal political weakness of the country's empire. And, in charting a wide range of wartime experience, he studies the 'intelligence war', naval engagements at Jutland and elsewhere, as well as the political consequences that ensued from the momentous US presidential election.

Using an extraordinary range of military, social and cultural sources, and relating the individual experiences on the ground to wider developments, these are the stories lost to history, the conflicts that spread beyond the sphere of Europe and the moments that transformed the war. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/1916-9781408834305/#sthash.axFq0psR.dpuf

Selecting Robust Strategies in RTS Games via Concurrent Plan Augmentation

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015

Tecnologias de apoio e multideficiência: recursos mediadores da aprendizagem e da inclusão

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino Especial – ramo de Problemas de Cognição e Multideficiência

Da leitura à escrita: as estratégias de compreensão leitora na melhoria da escrita de textos narrativos

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de mestre em Ensino dos 1.º e 2.º Ciclos do Ensino Básico

As peculiaridades da democratização da região do Cáucaso do Sul no contexto da Política Europeia de Vizinhança

O período após o colapso da União Soviética foi o tempo da procura de novas identidades na nova realidade e de escolha de novos parceiros e aliados, o tempo da construção de novos estados e de formulação das regras e normas nacionais. Após o desmoronamento da ideologia soviética - um facto reconhecido oficialmente durante o período da Perestroika –, as pessoas sentiram uma necessidade de preencher o vácuo ideológico e desenvolver uma nova identidade. Foi proclamada a rejeição da estrutura política administrativa herdada da União Soviética e do sistema de economia planificada, e desenvolvida a tendência para a construção do estado democrático fundado numa economia de mercado. As expectativas relativas às transformações no período pós-soviético estavam relacionadas com o Ocidente (EUA e UE), e a construção do estado soberano foi fundada em modelos ocidentais de estado de direito, ‘boa governança’ e a economia de mercado. A UE desempenhou um papel importante na democratização dos estados da região do Sul do Cáucaso através de vários projetos e programas bilaterais e multilaterais no âmbito da Política Europeia de Vizinhança e da Parceria Oriental. Embora as reformas democráticas tenham sido realizadas com vista ao estabelecimento de uma Constituição democrática, à implementação de eleições democráticas e ao desenvolvimento da sociedade civil, fortaleceram, também, ainda mais, a natureza autoritária do poder, impediram a criação de um estado de direito, reforçaram violação dos direitos e das liberdades humanas. (NODIYA, 2003: 30; BAKHMAN, 2003: 17; BADALOV, 2003: 20). Deste modo, o processo da promoção da democracia através das reformas nos três estados do Sul do Cáucaso conduziu à criação de estados de “conteúdo autocrático misto, mas de forma democrática” (CHETERYAN, 2003: 41). Embora seja possível identificar as semelhanças entre os três estados da região do Sul do Cáucaso nas reformas do processo de desenvolvimento, os métodos e meios de implementação de reformas nas realidades dos estados regionais pela administração nacional foram bastante diferentes, por razões associadas às especificidades de cada um (DELCOUR e WOLCZUK, 2013: 3). Cada país é caracterizado pelas suas peculiaridades ao nível da situação geopolítica e diversidade do potencial económico – fatores que definem a trajetória política e económica do estado no período pós-soviético e, em certa medida, influenciam o modo como se desenvolvem as relações com a UE e, portanto, o processo de adoção das reformas e a sua introdução a nível nacional.

Inflation Targeting Under Asymmetric Preferences

This paper develops and estimates a game-theoretical model of inflation targeting where the central banker's preferences are asymmetric around the targeted rate. In particular, positive deviations from the target can be weighted more, or less, severely than negative ones in the central banker's loss function. It is shown that some of the previous results derived under the assumption of symmetry are not robust to the generalization of preferences. Estimates of the central banker's preference parameters for Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are statistically different from the ones implied by the commonly used quadratic loss function. Econometric results are robust to different forecasting models for the rate of unemployment but not to the use of measures of inflation broader than the one targeted.

A Prudent Central Banker

This paper studies monetary policy in an economy where the central banker's preferences are asymmetric around optimal inflation. In particular, positive deviations from the optimum can be weighted more, or less, severely than negative deviations in the policy maker's loss function. It is shown that under asymmetric preferences, uncertainty can induce a prudent behavior on the part of the central banker. Since the prudence motive can be large enough to override the inflation bias, optimal monetary policy could be implemented even in the absence of rules, reputation, or contractual mechanisms. For certain parameter values, a deflationary bias can arise in equilibrium.

Rigidité normale, dévaluation et équilibre général intertemporel

La présente étude analyse les effets dynamiques de la dévaluation du franc CFA, à l’aide d’un modèle monétaire d’équilibre général, intertemporel et multisectoriel. L’accent est particulièrement mis sur les interactions entre dévaluation et accumulation du capital. Dans le modèle, les effets du changement de parité passent par le marché du travail qui se caractérise par l’inertie du salaire nominal. Les résultats montrent que la dévaluation relance l’investissement, avec des effets expansionnistes sur l’activité économique. Le choc monétaire n’a eu qu’un impact limité sur les soldes budgétaire et commercial. Une mesure d’accompagnement telle que la réduction des salaires de la fonction publique améliore ces deux soldes mais déclenche un processus récessif.

Les facteurs declencheurs des crises financieres internationales

Ce rapport s'inscrit dans la problematique soulevée par l'insistance des milieux financiers américains et du Trésor américain à libéraliser et à globaliser les mouvements internationaux de capitaux. Dans cette perspective, il tente de répondre à trois questions, à savoir 1) est-ce que la finance internationale en général et les institutions monétaires et financières nationales et internationales sont sources d'instabilité financière et économique pour les pays? 2) est-il possible d'éviter que les bénéfices découlant de l'accès accru aux marchés internationaux des capitaux soient diminués et même renversés par des crises monétaires et financières internationales et nationales et, comme corollaire, 3) est-ce que le systême actuel des monnaies nationales est dépassé ?

Nonlinear Monetary Policy Rules: Some New Evidence for the U.S.

This paper derives optimal monetary policy rules in setups where certainty equivalence does not hold because either central bank preferences are not quadratic, and/or the aggregate supply relation is nonlinear. Analytical results show that these features lead to sign and size asymmetries, and nonlinearities in the policy rule. Reduced-form estimates indicate that US monetary policy can be characterized by a nonlinear policy rule after 1983, but not before 1979. This finding is consistent with the view that the Fed's inflation preferences during the Volcker-Greenspan regime differ considerably from the ones during the Burns-Miller regime.

Economic Development under Alternative Trade Regimes

How does openness affect economic development? This question is answered in the context of a dynamic general equilibrium model of the world economy, where countries have technological differences that are both sector-neutral and specific to the investment goods sector. Relative to a benchmark case of trade in credit markets only, consider (i) a complete restriction of trade, and (ii) a full liberalization of trade. The first change decreases the cross-sectional dispersion of incomes only slightly, and produces a relatively small welfare loss. The second change, instead, decreases dispersion by a significant amount, and produces a very large welfare gain.

Finite-Sample Simulation-Based Inference in VAR Models with Applications to Order Selection and Causality Testing

Statistical tests in vector autoregressive (VAR) models are typically based on large-sample approximations, involving the use of asymptotic distributions or bootstrap techniques. After documenting that such methods can be very misleading even with fairly large samples, especially when the number of lags or the number of equations is not small, we propose a general simulation-based technique that allows one to control completely the level of tests in parametric VAR models. In particular, we show that maximized Monte Carlo tests [Dufour (2002)] can provide provably exact tests for such models, whether they are stationary or integrated. Applications to order selection and causality testing are considered as special cases. The technique developed is applied to quarterly and monthly VAR models of the U.S. economy, comprising income, money, interest rates and prices, over the period 1965-1996.

Une analyse de la sanction économique en droit international

Le principal reproche qui est adressé au droit international est la faiblesse de ses mécanismes de sanctions. Pour cette raison, plusieurs penseurs juridiques ont conclu que le droit international n'existait pas. Le présent mémoire vise donc à étudier la rhétorique derrière cette affirmation et à examiner sa validité. Pour ce faire, nous analysons dans un premier temps la relation entre la sanction et le droit à travers le cadre positiviste du XIXe siècle. Nous étudions tour à tour les soi-disant critères constitutifs de la sanction. Nous les comparons avec d'autres ordres non juridiques pour ensuite rejeter le postulat positiviste qui fait de la contrainte et de la centralisation des pouvoirs les éléments essentiels de la sanction. Nous étudions ensuite le cadre d'adoption des sanctions économiques du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies. Cette étape nous permet d'expliquer les principales faiblesses et limitations du droit international. Parmi celles-ci, le manque de coopération internationale, le droit de veto et le principe de la souveraineté nationale sont les éléments qui freinent l'adoption des sanctions coopération internationale. Nous examinons ensuite les objectifs derrière l'imposition des sanctions ainsi que leur efficacité. Finalement, nous étudions les embargos en général et les embargos sur les armes. Cette étude nous permet d'une part de démontrer les effets des sanctions économiques sur la population civile et sur les États tiers. D'autre part, elle nous permet de mieux comprendre les problèmes relatifs à l'administration d'une sanction, ainsi qu'aux mesures de contournement des interdictions.